November 06, 2007

The Silliest Freestyle Move of All Time? Who Cares...It's Fun!

Watch the video.

I know it looks stupid. But incredibly, it's a lot of fun!

I'd tried a few Gecko Flakas in an ABK Windsurfing instructional camp and decided that, despite my desire to learn new nonplaning tricks (not to mention how cool the Gecko Flaka looks), it just wasn't worth it (in other words, I wasn't getting close, so the heck with it!) Then the instructor Tom shouted out "try a Gecko Loop!" Chief instructor Andy Brandt got excited and demonstrated one. It had the dignity of a father trying to ride his kid's tricycle and falling off.

Immediately Jeff (who will try anything) started working on them. He hit his first after perhaps 90 seconds of effort, and he came up with a big grin, saying "that was great!"

Then he did another. And another.

I wasn't up for Jeff solving one of the mysteries of the universe while I hadn't, so I started working on the move, with Andy feeding me suggestions, hints, and general encouragement.

It took me five minutes to hit my first. That's about as fast as I've learned anything (I'm seven years into push tacks, and while they're dry, they still aren't pretty.)

"Pretty" and the Gecko Loop

As seen earlier in the video, this thing is not pretty. It is not radical. It is not extreme. It does not inspire awe. Zero style points are accumulated. You get the idea. Andy Brandt says throwing the Gecko Loop reminds him of the old line about riding mopeds, the one that says "it's fun to do, until somebody sees you."

Comments

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Come on, Michael, do the flaka version! How can you give up? It's NOT that difficult! Just need to learn to balance on the front foot and keep all of your weight there and beyond.
The loop version is just an awkward and inglorious way to fall in the water - IF you do it right!

My son does Geckos and he finds them easier to do on his wave board - that's probably cos the volume is so much less and so its much easier to sink the nose. They say that the board should not be more than 20litres of your weight ie if you weigh 80kilos then board should not be more than 100 litres.

OK Tried this at WN today-as I fell off a plane. It almost didn't happen! Just as soon as my feet went into both straps, wind picked up and I decided to hook in and take off! Try that! Tried it again as the wind backed off, feet came out of the straps when I went over-laughing all the way, ha ha ha... ;)